First ombudsperson: Renunciation of mandate does not justify Ruben Hayrapetyan (video)

Armenia’s first Human Rights Defender Larisa Alaverdyan says it was a miracle that a Yerevan court announced the same verdict for the six defendants in the Harsnakar case.

“The court ruled that the six men had committed a grave crime and should be convicted under the same article,” she said.

She says there was lack of confidence in the disclosure of the crime from the very beginning.

“All traces were removed and washed away from the scene. Later former Republican MP Ruben Hayrapetyan, the owner of the Harsnakar restaurant complex where the murder was committed, became the main suspect of the crime. Those, who think that by renouncing his deputy mandate, Hayrapetyan cleared himself of the crime, are mistaken,” said Larisa Alaverdyan.

On June 17, 2012, military doctor Vahe Avetyan along with two colleagues was brutally beaten by security guards in the Harsnakar restaurant owned by Ruben Hayrapetyan, chairman of Armenia’s Football Federation and former MP of the Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). Avetyan did not regain consciousness following the beating, and died 12 days later. The uproar following the death of a military doctor made Hayrapetyan renounce his mandate.

A criminal case was initiated after the incident which resulted in the arrest of several restaurant workers. The trial continued till March 2014. On March 24, Court of General Jurisdiction of Yerevan’s Avan and Nor Nork districts sentenced the six defendants – Garik Margaryan, Arman Baghdasaryan, David Adamyan, Arman Khachatryan, Norayr Hayrapetyan and Arthur Babloyan – to 12 years’ imprisonment.